


Hopeless Days - An Ancient Sign of Coming Storm

by Terrenis



Series: Hopeless Days [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Prophecy (Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angst, BAMF Natasha, F/M, I just happen to like shitty 90's horror movies, I'm really sorry for writing this, M/M, Nat and Bucky are BFFs, Not Really Character Death, Sassy! Natasha, the Prophecy AU!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-07
Updated: 2014-10-07
Packaged: 2018-02-20 06:58:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2419349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terrenis/pseuds/Terrenis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snippets and alternate Versions of the MCU, all of them leading up to the main story "Hopeless Days"..</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1941 - Visions of the Things to be

**Author's Note:**

> Main Title taken from "Hopeless Days" by Amorphis
> 
> Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Steve and Bucky fall to their icy deaths, they have visions, not knowing that they will come true...70 years later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes:
> 
> Title is taken from “Suicide is painless” by Johnny Mandel
> 
> Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me!
> 
> (See the end of the work for more notes.)

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

1945 – Visions of the things to be

 

Icy winds and snow surround Bucky’s body as he falls away from the disappearing train, Steve’s desperate face the last thing he sees as it becomes smaller and smaller until he can’t see it anymore. He doesn’t regret his decision to take up the shield and defend his Captain, for he knows that Steve would have done the same for him.

But he is dispensable, while Steve is not and never would be. So Bucky has made the one decision, which has seemed right in his opinion.

So he is falling…until he isn’t anymore. 

Opening his eyes, his first rational thought is that he’s stuck in some sort of limbo, because there’s no way he’s going up to heaven. There is only darkness around him and Bucky shivers as the incredible cold seeks a way through his broken body. 

However, that feeling didn’t last long, for he is all of a sudden surrounded by a bright light in the colours of the rainbow and Bucky felt a pull from above, lifting him slowly upwards.

He turns his head upwards and watches, as he flies faster and faster and faster, until he sees a golden light at the end of the tunnel. Bucky wonders briefly if this is really what he thinking it is. Is he really going to heaven?

The golden light turns out to be a beautiful golden city in the middle of an ocean, a bridge in the same colours as the tunnel crossing the water from a big golden gate, guarded by a dark-skinned man in golden armour and a heavy sword. Above in the sky, a yellow sun is shining upon the big citadel that dominates the city. But there is also the black night sky to be seen - with nebulas, galaxies and stars in every imaginable colour.

It is a stunning and peaceful sight and Bucky wishes that Steve was here with him and could see it with his own eyes. He can almost smell the salty air, when it abruptly starts to mingle with a smell he knows too well – the scent of blood and death.

Bucky’s eyes widens in horror as the sight changes in front of him.

The sky has turned completely black, the sun and every stellar light swallowed by it. 

The great City is burning and Bucky can hear the screams of the heavenly beings. He watches as an army of unspeakable creatures overruns the heavenly army, winged warriors trying in vain to keep them at bay. They all end up impaled on the enemy’s lances. Those, who try to escape, are snapped out of the air by a snake so giant that her lower half is still underwater and yet she hovers way up over the now smoking citadel.

Outside the Gate, the Guardian is facing another man wearing green and gold, his most striking attitude the horned helmet on his head. They have a cruel battle going on, sword blade clashing loudly against spear head, neither man ready to give in.

In the end…the man with the helmet gains the upper hand and he rams his spear in one swift move through the Guardian’s chest, impaling just like the others. Then he turns his vivid green eyes on Bucky, who shudders when he realizes that this is all real and not one of his hallucinations.

He wants to scream, but he cannot seem to get a single sound out of his mouth. If this is supposed to be heaven, then he doesn’t want to stay here anymore. 

And as if someone had heard his unintentional plea, the rainbow tunnel and the cruel sight disappear at once and he’s left behind in darkness once again, falling down once more. But maybe it is better this way.

It doesn’t take long for Bucky to be surrounded by the threaded ice and snow of the Alps. But this time he just wants it to be over quickly. His terrified eyes watch the ground coming closer and closer and closer…

Then he felt a sharp pain in his left arm and the ground is only a few metres away and he really doesn’t want to die and he’s going to miss Steve and….

His world turns black for the next 45 years.

☆☆

Schmidt is finally dead.

At least, Steve thinks he is. After all, he has seen with his own eyes the HYDRA Leader finally has managed to disintegrate himself. One minute he’s holding the blue glowing Tesseract in his right hand, next thing Steve knows is that the cube explodes in a bright light, literally, and opens up what looks like a doorway to another universe, a foreign starry sky merging with the structure of the airplane. 

Then the Red Skull slowly begins to disappear, starting from the hand holding the Tesseract and spreading from there, until nothing is left but glittering particles, which are quickly sucked up by the other end of the entryway, before it closes and the cube falls to the floor, burning a hole into the floor and the airplane’s outer shell. 

The artefact then disappears through it, falls down to the ocean, but Steve can’t bring himself to care.

The Red Scull is gone, but he still needs to find a place where he can ‘land’ the plane and maybe meet up with Bucky afterwards.

Bucky…

The Captain’s eyes begin to water when he thinks of his dearest friend. He returns to the pilot’s sat, sits down, takes a deep breath and put his hands on the steering wheel. He knows that he could land this plane safely, could wait for the others to pick him up, do everything he wants.

The problem is – he doesn’t want to.

His whole life, he had been focused on Bucky, ever since they met as kids during that alley fight. They had played together, lived together, loved together…And now this was over, too.

Steve sniffs again and a lonely tear escapes his left eye. Then he becomes suddenly excited.

There, right in front of him, was the answer to his questions. A lonely glacier. If he could land the plane there, no one at the east coast would get hurt. And since no one would find him there, he could join his friend in peace.

Fully intend on pulling through with his plan, he contacts Peggy and says his good bye, although the female agent tries to talk him out of it. As soon as he loses contact with her, he takes one last deep breath and then takes the airplane down towards the glacier.

The impact with the icy water isn’t as bad as he has thought. 

Sure, he is thrown out of his seat and hits his head really hard on the panel. But when he lies on the floor, dazed from the impact and quickly getting drenched by the invading water, Steve suddenly sees a slightly older version of Bucky crouching next to him, wearing a dark suit and a coat as well as sunshades over his eyes. This Bucky-version turns his head and looks at him and Steve cannot help but chuckle.

“If this is heaven, then I should done this much earlier!” he whispers, more to himself.

The water is rising and he doesn’t dare to move, in case the Bucky-vision might be vanishing if he does. Vision! Bucky now stretches out his right arm, touches Steve’s face and for one single moment, the Captain feels ghostly fingers wander over his jaw, his lips, his nose. That’s the moment where he loses it.

His whole body begins to shake uncontrollably and a shaky sob escapes his mouth, as he reaches out for the hallucination, wants to touch and to hold it and he lets out a desperate ‘Buck’, when the Bucky-vision simply vanishes at his touch.

Using the last of his strength, Steve rolls on his back, continues to shake, because the water is so cold and almost covering him. He thinks of his vision and concludes that it’s finally time for him to go.

Closing his eyes, Steve lets his mind drift away to a cheerier time and place, where two dumb boys from Brooklyn just lived together in a small apartment and, despite being in constant need of money and medicine for one sick boy, were happy.

When the water has finally completely covered him and starts to freeze, Steve has a smile on his face and dreams for the next seven decades deep under a glacier in the Arctic.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I should work on my other stories, but I’m sort of stuck there and this plotbunny won’t leave me alone. The next few stories in the ‘Hopeless Days” - Series are covering a timeline until 2014, when the actual story starts, because I’m taking a different approach for the MCU.
> 
> Don’t forget to leave a comment if you like it and join me on Tumblr. 
> 
> You can find me here: terrenis.tumblr.com


	2. 1991 - New World in my View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Almost 5 decades after his fall, the Soldier is found by the Black Widow. For him and her, it is the start of a new, HYDRA-free life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is taken from “New World in my View” by King Britt
> 
> Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me!
> 
> Inspiration for this chapter is the post I made on my tumblr. You can find it here: https://33.media.tumblr.com/24081a79cbab5de4ffb2b814bed2f5dc/tumblr_nd2zqxNl4V1rc5g30o1_500.jpg

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

1991 – New World in my view

 

It’s a moonless night outside the unremarkable warehouse. It looks like an ordinary warehouse, one of those which can be found in every major city or at harbours – about 50 meters high and 150 meters wide and long, only a few dirty windows and a single door that leads inside.

No one would think that it could contain anything suspicious. But the helmeted, in black leather clad person on the motorbike parking in front of the only entrance knows better. She knows exactly what is stored inside, because that’s the reason why she’s here.

This warehouse is filled with abandoned projects from AIM, the Red Room and HYDRA. But she’s only looking for a certain project. It has taken her more than two years to hunt the files for this project and its storage place down. But now she’s here and has to hurry, because she has heard the rumours of HYDRA gathering its assets and she can’t allow them to steal it away. Not again. 

The helmeted biker takes off his head covering and a mane of fiery red hair comes flowing out of it, belonging to a woman in her early twenties.

The woman puts her helmet on the seat and takes off her large backpack, rummaging through it until she holds up a small box in her gloved hands, a triumphant smirk on her face, before she grabbed the bag and began picking the lock, opening it in no time.

The woman shakes her head at that. For all the high security thing that are stored inside, the door lock has been pretty shitty.

“Это цифры! Идиоты должны вложили свои деньги в лучшем дверной замок! (1)” she huffs, shaking her red curls in annoyance before slipping quietly inside.

☆☆

The inwards of the warehouse is dimly lit – a problem that isn’t really one. The woman takes out a flashlight and switches it on. If her contacts are correct, her target, the project she has come here for, must be around.

The heels of her biker boots are making a clicking noise, as she walks on and searches the high shelves with the torch. There are lots of boxes on them in every size – small ones, big ones and midsize ones. 

The woman must have gone only a few meters, when she suddenly stops. Right in front of her is a weak greenly glow and she can hear the low hum of machines. Her lips curve up into a smile and she breaks out in a run. The nearer she gets to it, the stronger the light gets.

Finally the redhead comes to a halt. There is a smile on her face, when she looks at what stands in the middle of the hall. She has found what she’s been looking for.

☆☆

There is a cryogenic chamber in the warehouse, connected to some futuristic looking machinery that emits the humming sound. It is also surrounded by a wire mesh fence with some wicked looking barbed wire on top.

Inside the cylinder is an unclothed man with a metal arm, a prominent red star dominating the upper part of it. He’s moving freely in some sort of fluid, the tubes hooked to his backside, which lead to the bottom of the compartment, the only thing to hold him steady. His eyes are closed and his shoulder-length dark hair is floating around his handsome face.

It’s her James, also known as the Winter Soldier.

The redheaded woman’s up to now anxious expression lights up when her gaze falls upon the stasis tube. Her green eyes look at the fence, look for a way in, but cannot find one. Sighing loudly, she puts down her bag and fishes a bolt cutter out of it, starts to cut a hole in the barrier. It takes nearly 10 minutes to finish her work, but at last, nothing is standing in her way anymore.

She steps slowly forwards after taking out a folder from the backpack, her eyes never leaving the man in the tube, and puts a gloved hand on the ice-cold glass that separates the two of them.

“Джеймс! Это я, Наталья. Не волнуйтесь! Я вытащу тебя из этой вещи. (2)” she whispers, hopes he can hear her voice, opens his eyes for her.

But much to Natalia’s dismay, James, the man in cryo, remains as he is, a real life Snow White, lifeless and sleeping, who is not going to wake up because of a simple wish. Seeing him this way, the redheaded woman hardly recognizes the man, who has trained and loved her all those years ago, before she managed to flee from the clutches of the Red Room.

Natalia sighs again and makes her way around the cylinder to the life support machines. Well, it seems she had to do it the normal way. Hopefully, the procedure files in her left hand, which she has gotten from her contacts, are correct or she would have a serious problem.

As soon as she reaches the humming machine, she opens the thick folder and flips through the pages, until she finds the right page to start with. Her eyes are dart over the dark metallic surface, while her free hand is searching as well, stopping when she feels something, a hidden button or something similar, and presses it. 

There is a quiet, hissing noise when the button reveals the hidden panel and the display underneath.

☆☆ 

Natalia sees lines and numbers on the black – green monitor – James’ vital signs and the actual temperature inside the chamber. There are some more buttons and switches, obviously needed for freezing and unfreezing.

The redhead turns her attention back to the folder and turns the page to read what to do next, because she can’t allow herself to make a mistake. This is too important.

Step 1: Raising temperature!

Natalia flicks two certain switches and the noise of the machine grows louder, as it comes to life. Then she slowly rotates the temperature control until it is set on body temperature. The light inside the tube changes from green to orange to red. Well, that is certainly a good sign, she thinks, while she prepares for Step 2.

Step 2: Waking him up!

Step 2 is a little bit trickier. To wake James from his sleep, she has to activate the release of the chemicals, which HYDRA uses, in the right order and with the right amount. For that, she moves sideward to the second panel, which is located right, where the glass tube ends. One glance at the file tells her what button to press, what switch to flick, what control to rotate.

Staring expectantly at her friend, Natalia looks for any signs of change. Ten minutes pass, before James’ hands start to twitch, only a little bit, but enough for Natalia to sigh with relief. More minutes pass by and his whole body starts moving. It would be only a matter of time, until he would completely wake up from his frozen state.

So there was only one question: How the hell is she supposed to get him out of there? Because she just has seen that this part of the file is missing. Why hasn’t she noticed it sooner? Damn HYDRA, damn Red Room. Even now they are able to make her life difficult.

“Ебена мать! (3)” 

Step 3: Get James the hell out of that thing!

Natalia frantically searches on both panels for the release mechanism, but doesn’t dare to press some random button. Her glances at James show her that he’s going to wake any moment. She has to act soon and there was only one way to get it quickly done.

She’d have to cut the glass, then to act quickly and catch James as soon as the glass would burst from the pressure and before he hit the floor. Luckily she has a glass cutter in her tool box. 

No sooner said than done!

Natalia positions herself on the frame holding the cylinder, straightens up and starts to cut carefully on the upper part. It is done quickly and she maneuvers herself when the greenish cryo liquid starts to trickle down the tube – slowly at first, then faster and faster. She braces herself when she hears the first cracking. Any minute now…

The tube breaks with a loud cracking sound and into thousands of shards, the liquid gushing on the dirty warehouse floor, both things, which the redhead tries to avoid with a masterfully performed twist of her body, before she catches the Soldier with both arms. He’s still as heavy as she remembers, and she’s not sure how long she can hold him like this.

So she frees him carefully from the tubes and lowers him, although with a little difficulty, on the wet floor around the now destroyed cryo tube, leaning him against the base after removing some of the shards lying there. Then she hurries to her backpack and looks for the space emergency blanket she has packed as well. 

But before the redheaded woman can get back to the Soldier, she hears him taking a deep shaky breath and turns around, only to be confronted with a pair of confused, blue eyes staring back at her.

“Наталья? (4)” a rough voice greets her and Natalia can’t help but smile at the Soldier.

“Добро пожаловать в мир живых, Джеймс! (5)”

She goes to him, kneels next to him, covers his shivering form with the foil blanket and pushes a wet strand away from his eyes. James leans into her tender touch and closes his eyes for a moment. He’s confused why he’s here and not in his cryo chamber. And Natalia is here, although they have told him that she has changed sides, shortly before his last freezing.

“Где я? Сколько времени прошло? (6)“ he asks her. 

“Это было десять лет, так как они поставить вас на льду и в этом склад здесь, в Праге. (7)“ Natalia says with a rueful expression on her face.

They stay silent for a while, just enjoying each other’s company after being separated. At least, the redhead takes another look at the Soldier. He’s still shaking, but he looks more alert and his complexion isn’t as pale as he has been moments ago.

“Can I…Can I have something to drink? My throat hurts…” James whispers, unconsciously switching Russian to English, his flesh hand touching his bare neck. Natalia nods and gets up.

“Of course I have! Let me get it! I have some clothes as well. I’ll help you put them on or else it’s going to be a little bit draughty on my bike.” 

James pretends to glare menacingly at her, but the redhead knows better. She sees that certain mischievous sparkle which she has missed so much.

She goes to get her backpack and joins James at the broken cryo-tube. She gives him a bottle of water so that he can soothe his throat. Then she helps him putting the clothes she has brought for him. They are not exactly the clothes, which he usually wears – just trousers, a shirt, socks, a pair of briefs, a pair of leather gloves and a jacket, all black – but they are warm and dry.

“So what now?” James asks his friend.

“Well, we go outside, then blow up the warehouse and then I’ll drive us back to the hotel. You must be hungry.”

The Soldier just nods.

☆☆

Natalia supports her friend on their way to the outside. The way is slow and James is far from being strong and healthy.

But when they speed away from the warehouse and it blows up in a spectacular way, Natalia feeling James’ reassuring weight on her back and his hands around her waist, she knows that everything is going to be alright. 

For now.

☆☆

Three Days later, James and Natalia find themselves on an Elbe river cruise ship to Dresden in former East Germany (of course Natalia has organized everything, including new passports), where they will take another ship headed to Hamburg. From there, the States are only one plane flight away.

James spends most of the time in bed, catching up with his natural sleep pattern. Of course there are nightmares and the occasional violent outburst, but Natalia does her best to soothe him, when it gets too much. But when she asks him, if he can remember his life before the Soldier, he shakes his head.

All he can see, are faces without names and a city on fire. He does not know what it means, but he can’t shake off the feeling that this is something which is going to happen in the future.

Once they have arrived in Hamburg and are waiting for their flight in a café, the redheaded woman shoves a small folder on the desk, being careful not to get any coffee stains on it. James looks questioningly on it.

“What’s this?”

Natalia chuckles.

“Our new life, silly.”

James raises an eyebrow, but takes the folder and opens it. It contains birth certificates, credentials and much more – everything for a new beginning.

“So I have to call you Natasha Romanoff now?” he concludes, looking at his friend again.

“You don’t have to. Just in public…Mr. Grant James!” Natalia snickers and finishes her coffee.

James just shakes his head, stares out of the window. It all seems so unreal. One week ago, he was still frozen and now…

Now, he and Natali – Natasha have a new world in their view.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for any mistakes, but I’m not used to write in present tense. And just in case you’re confused:
> 
> In this AU, the Soldier is wiped, but not after his separation from Natalia and before his last freezing.
> 
> Translations (as translated by Google, because my school Russian is more than a little bit rusty after not practicing it for 16 years now): 
> 
> (1)  
> It figures! Idiots should have invested their money in a better door lock!  
> (2)  
> James! It’s me, Natalia. Don’t worry! I’ll get you out of here.  
> (3)  
> Damn it!  
> (4)  
> Natalia?  
> (5)  
> Welcome to the world of the living, James!  
> (6)  
> Where am I? How much time has passed?  
> (7)  
> It's been ten years, since they put you on ice and in this warehouse here in Prague. 
> 
> Don’t forget to leave a comment if you like it and join me on Tumblr. You can find me here: 
> 
> terrenis.tumblr.com


End file.
